Beverage bottles and cans are generally filled with a beverage via a batch process. The beverage components (usually concentrate, sweetener, and water) are mixed in a blending area and then carbonated if desired. The finished beverage product is then pumped to a filler bowl. The containers are filled with the finished beverage product via a filler valve as the containers advance along a filling line. The containers then may be capped, labeled, packaged, and transported to the consumer. Depending upon the nature of the beverage and local custom, certain beverages may be cold filled, filled in a hot fill process, or filled using an aseptic process and the like to ensure purity therein.
As the number of different beverage products continues to grow, however, bottlers may face increasing amounts of downtime because the filling lines need to be changed over from one product to the next. This can be a time consuming process in that the tanks, pipes, filler bowls, and other equipment must be flushed with water and sanitized before being refilled with the next product batch. Bottlers thus may be reluctant to produce a small volume of a given product because of the required downtime between production runs. Moreover, the sanitation process may involve the use of a significant amount of water and/or sanitizing chemicals.
Not only is there a significant amount of downtime in changing products, the downtime also results when adding various types of ingredients to the product. For example, it may be desirable to add an amount of calcium to an orange juice beverage. Once the run of the orange juice with the calcium is complete, however, the same flushing and sanitation procedures must be carried out to remove any trace of the calcium or other type of additive. As a result, customized runs of beverages with unique additives simply are not favored given the required downtime.
Thus, there is a desire for an improved high speed filling system that can quickly adapt to filling different types of products as well as products with varying additives. The system preferably can produce these products without downtime or costly changeover and sanitation procedures. The system also should be able to produce both high volume and customized products in a high speed and efficient manner. There is also a desire to produce a mix of flavors or beverages simultaneously.